Green Lake Kwanzans

 

4/21/26 Green Lake

Petal-peeping season isn’t over yet, and I don’t even have to go far to peep. The Kwanzan cherries at Green Lake seem to have exploded into pink pompoms overnight. Growing sporadically around the park rather than in large clusters, they pop brilliantly against the otherwise mostly dark foliage. Ironically, I didn’t even have to walk to the lake for these: I found them in a parking lot.

I must say that the second sketch might be one of my favorite tree sketches. It started raining shortly after I began, so I worked much more quickly than I usually would with water-soluble materials. Under-thinking instead of over-thinking!

I also may have exaggerated the vibrancy of the hues a bit -- so shoot me!

In the same parking lot, I found a few thirsty geese.

The Same Path

 

2/12/26

Jamie began hospice care a couple of months ago. His wife told me recently that he had stopped eating. I’m expecting to hear sad news sometime soon.

As Greg’s regular visitor, I have gotten to know a couple of spouses of other residents. Sometimes we talk about caregiving issues. Sometimes we simply greet or nod. The burden of the heart is an instant bond that requires no conversation.

We’ve all taken different paths to get here, but now we’re all on the same one. We all know there is only one destination.

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The Future is Finally Here

 

4/19/26 New Judkins Park Station and Mercer Island Station platform

Preamble:

For the first decade-plus of my career, I worked for the Municipality of Metro Seattle, which used to manage and operate the Seattle transit system. As tunnels were being burrowed for buses through the main downtown thoroughfare, disrupting traffic and businesses for years, most of the marketing was about how the new transitway would eventually be used for the region’s as-yet-to-be-built light rail system. This work wasn’t just for ourselves; our children and grandchildren would ride the light rail! (Much potential there for public relations copywriters like myself.)

That was in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. The 2020s, when all of it was slated to be completed, seemed like a very long way off. I’ll be sitting in my rocker by then, I grumbled, envisioning my 21^st century self. Meanwhile, my current tax dollars were already paying for that wonderful light rail system that I would be too old to use. (Even if I wrote it myself, the copywriting wasn’t enough to convince this grumbling taxpayer that it would all be worthwhile “someday.”)

Four decades later, I’m happy and grateful that I have lived long enough to enjoy that dream-like future (and I no longer begrudge my tax dollars). The light rail has been my most convenient form of public transportation for several years now.

My lunch at Dough Zone at Redmond Towne Center and Downtown Redmond Station

From my perspective, though, the pinnacle of the light rail system was the connection that opened only last month: After multiple, lengthy delays, each putting me one step closer to my rocker, the link between Seattle and the Eastside across Lake Washington was finally completed!

(Delays notwithstanding, this cross-lake link is an engineering marvel: It’s the first train in the world to operate on a floating bridge, which was, itself, the first in the world in 1940.)

Art at Downtown Redmond Station

During all those years that I had to commute to the Eastside for the second leg of my career, how wonderful it would have been to take a comfortable, modern train instead of bumpy buses or, most dreaded, my own car! I’m not grumbling about that, though. Now that the light rail can take me almost anywhere in the Puget Sound region that I’d like to go, I can enjoy easy, very inexpensive rides for fun in retirement instead of commuting to work.

All of that was just preamble (or maybe just amble). Today’s blog story is much shorter:

Kate, Jane, Ellie and I rode the new light rail connection all the way from Seattle to Redmond Towne Center last Sunday. Our mission was to scout the best stations for sketching potential and related amenities for a future USk outing. For me, it was also a satisfying sense of closure: Four decades of the promised future finally becoming the present.

Art and water feature at Bellevue Downtown Station

Bellevue Downtown Station

Art at Downtown Redmond Station

Jane, Ellie, Tina and Kate riding the historic rails!

Pacific Science Center

 

4/18/26 Pacific Science Center arches from inside the courtyard

Although I’ve sketched the Pacific Science Center’s iconic arches several times over the years, and I’ve seen a couple of IMAX films and other ticketed events inside the Center, it had been 14 years since I was in the central courtyard (I remember that day well – it was my first urban sketching workshop). After being closed to the public for many years, the courtyard only recently reopened as a public space. Last Saturday was a terrific day for USk Seattle to meet there: It was sunny all day, and the temp got up to 70 by late-afternoon!

I first joined other sketchers in the courtyard to sketch the fountains (below) and my first view of the arches (top of post).

Courtyard fountains

Feeling iconic, I then wandered outside the Science Center so that I could sketch the Space Needle (twice!) and the arches again, this time from a distance. I also caught my first busker of the year: a man playing an electric violin (and competing with a busking drummer nearby).

Sketching in the sunshine until I had to take my jacket off, it sure felt like spring!

Hing Hay Gateway

 

4/17/26 Hing Hay Park, Chinatown-International District

Meeting friends for a late lunch in the Chinatown-International District, I arrived early and stopped at Hing Hay Park. Although I’ve sketched the bright red Gateway sculpture at the park entrance many times, it never ceases to be challenging. It’s painted the same solid vermilion on every face, but each face reflects the light differently.

I like the vivid contrasts of both the complementary colors and of nature: One tree shimmered with fresh leaves while the other stood stoically winter-bare. I felt the same dichotomy: When I left the house in the morning, it was cold enough to grab my down parka. By early afternoon when I sketched in the sun, I was too warm.

Sketchbook notes: Grumpy about this Stillman & Birn Zeta’s awkward and less versatile landscape format, I’m still determined to fill it up as quickly as possible. This panorama landscape view turned out to be ideal for it, so I was a little less grumpy. It’s still awkward to hold a landscape book, though.

At last, the Olympia Kwanzans!

 

4/16/26 Washington State Legislative Building, Olympia

After all the nearly-white Yoshino cherry blossoms have left the party, the showy Kwanzans arrive fashionably late. Although I try to chase the ones I find in my neighborhood each year, I don’t know of any Seattle street with more than a few standing together. The best street of Kwanzans is in Olympia – aptly named Cherry Lane Southwest adjacent to the State Legislative Building – and I had been wanting to sketch them for several years. With the longish drive and rain to contend with, it’s been challenging to find the right time. The weather and my schedule finally aligned last Thursday, so I called an ad hoc joint outing between USk Seattle and the South Sound Sketchers.

Although partly sunny, the morning temps were only in the high 30s in Olympia. I had to put on my full-length down coat and gloves again! The drive and cold were both worth it, though, when we all saw that block of bright pink blossoms. The composition to look for was obvious: The Capitol building framed by cherry branches (top of post). Having just sketched the domed Jefferson Memorial a couple of weeks ago at the DC tidal basin, it was especially fun to sketch the state capitol in a similar composition.

Next I found the Temple of Justice Building behind another cluster of Kwanzans (and a couple taking a selfie stepped into the composition just as I was finishing up).

Temple of Justice Building on Cherry Lane SW

During the initial meetup at the Winged Victory Monument, I had time to make a quick sketch of the bronze sculpture honoring those who served in the First World War. Then right before the throwdown, I made another quick sketch of a cherry.

Winged Victory Monument

For lunch several of us went to Mi Luna Cuban Café near the Capitol. I was starving, so I didn’t spend more than a couple minutes sketching my roasted veggie bowl with maduros plantains (misspelled in my sketchbook). That was one of the most delicious meals I’ve had in a long time!

4/16/26 Tivoli Fountain and Mi Luna Cuban Cafe

Also shown on the page above is a tiny sketch of the Tivoli Fountain, which I could see in the distance during the throwdown (behind a sculpture that looked like a tiny Washington Monument).

Although it took me a few years to get there, this trip to Olympia was well worth it!

Maple Leaf Park Gazebo

 

4/10/26 Maple Leaf Park playground and gazebo

After I had posted a sketch of Mt. Rainier from Maple Leaf Park, I received a comment on Flickr asking how the gazebo was doing. Gazebo? I walk around Maple Leaf Park several times a week – how could I miss a gazebo? Then I realized that the “gazebo” was in reference to the structure in the lower part of the park where the playground is, where I rarely walk. I also hadn’t thought of it as a gazebo because it’s a very open structure compared to most gazebos (when I think of a gazebo, it’s something I duck into for shelter in case of unexpected rain). When I did a little googling to learn more about the gazebo (and found this article), I realized that the person who had commented on Flickr is one of the artists, Nick Lyle.

Gazebo detail

All of that made me realize that I had never sketched the gazebo! The next day, I immediately corrected that. The 10-foot-tall, forged steel structure is very airy with birds, plants and other natural motifs. Now I know why I hadn’t sketched it before – it’s very challenging to make the delicate, arching “branches” show up in front of all the deep foliage behind it.

I stood inside the completely open gazebo (no rain shelter here!), which is “evocative of the web of life that connects both the urban and natural worlds,” to sketch a cormorant detail. As often happens, I discovered that I hadn’t appreciated or even noticed those details until I sketched them.